Thanks for the suggestions!

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Rod Weston]

Thanks everyone, for your assistance.  I had also posted messages on
the python and smalltalk groups for other perspectives and have
arrived at the following conclusions.

My objectives are to quickly learn and become productive in a language
that properly supports Object Oriented Programming.  I want to use
free or inexpensive toolsets and I want to have a market for my
efforts.  I want strong typing because I believe, having worked in a
language without typing, that it provides a strong deterrent to
serious errors.  I want a strong debugging tool, compile-time error
trapping and very strong exception handling.  I believe I have found
the best language to satisfy those objectives in Ada.  The real
bonuses in Ada are the ability to generate code that is capable of
communicating with JavaScript and Cobol (among others) and the speed
of execution, provided I use the 'right' compiler **(I'm open to a lot
more discussion of *that* topic)**.  So I have begun to assemble my
Win32 Ada95 environment with GNAT, AdaGide, GRASP, AdaSQL, GLADE,
AdaCGI, GNATCOM, Lovelace, Learn Ada on the Web (LAW), Ada in Action
(online book), Dale Stanbrough's Introduction to Ada, and Introducing
Ada95 (Barnes).  I've also downloaded what seem to be the preeminent
source code libraries so I can see how the best go about programming
in Ada.  I mention these to encourage suggestions on a suitable
professional learning environment.  I also downloaded EMACS, but
haven't been able to get the Ada 'personality' installed and I'm
wondering if the AdaGIDE will be better for development than EMACS
anyway.  I'm not really excited about EMACS at this point.  **What
editors are being used and loved out there that have Ada
configurations?**

What did I learn from the Python and Smalltalk groups?  That they each
love their environments, that Python is too slow for serious
consideration and that Smalltalk would be worthy of future
consideration as an additional language - if I were the type that
'collected' languages, which I am not.  Also, that Eiffel seems to be
an excellent pure OOP language, but no one seems to be using it for
professional development and, other than the distinction of being
'pure OOP', has no powerful arguments for its use over Ada.

Further discussion?

Re: Thanks for the suggestions!

[Marin David Condic]

Congratulations on making a sound investment! Welcome aboard. I hope you
will enjoy Ada as much as I have over the years and that you will take your
new-found knowledge and become a vocal advocate. You might mention your
findings in the related newsgroups you talked about. We all benefit whenever
we can get even one more user of Ada since it broadens the base of support.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Rod Weston" <rod_weston@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f7ce0059.0106121127.41b1587f@posting.google.com...
> Thanks everyone, for your assistance.  I had also posted messages on
> the python and smalltalk groups for other perspectives and have
> arrived at the following conclusions.
>
> My objectives are to quickly learn and become productive in a language
> that properly supports Object Oriented Programming.  I want to use
> free or inexpensive toolsets and I want to have a market for my
> efforts.  I want strong typing because I believe, having worked in a
> language without typing, that it provides a strong deterrent to
> serious errors.  I want a strong debugging tool, compile-time error
> trapping and very strong exception handling.  I believe I have found
> the best language to satisfy those objectives in Ada.  The real
> bonuses in Ada are the ability to generate code that is capable of
> communicating with JavaScript and Cobol (among others) and the speed
> of execution, provided I use the 'right' compiler **(I'm open to a lot
> more discussion of *that* topic)**.  So I have begun to assemble my
> Win32 Ada95 environment with GNAT, AdaGide, GRASP, AdaSQL, GLADE,
> AdaCGI, GNATCOM, Lovelace, Learn Ada on the Web (LAW), Ada in Action
> (online book), Dale Stanbrough's Introduction to Ada, and Introducing
> Ada95 (Barnes).  I've also downloaded what seem to be the preeminent
> source code libraries so I can see how the best go about programming
> in Ada.  I mention these to encourage suggestions on a suitable
> professional learning environment.  I also downloaded EMACS, but
> haven't been able to get the Ada 'personality' installed and I'm
> wondering if the AdaGIDE will be better for development than EMACS
> anyway.  I'm not really excited about EMACS at this point.  **What
> editors are being used and loved out there that have Ada
> configurations?**
>
> What did I learn from the Python and Smalltalk groups?  That they each
> love their environments, that Python is too slow for serious
> consideration and that Smalltalk would be worthy of future
> consideration as an additional language - if I were the type that
> 'collected' languages, which I am not.  Also, that Eiffel seems to be
> an excellent pure OOP language, but no one seems to be using it for
> professional development and, other than the distinction of being
> 'pure OOP', has no powerful arguments for its use over Ada.
>
> Further discussion?

Re: Thanks for the suggestions!

[Ted Dennison]

In article <f7ce0059.0106121127.41b1587f@posting.google.com>, Rod Weston says...
>
>in Ada.  I mention these to encourage suggestions on a suitable
>professional learning environment.  I also downloaded EMACS, but
>haven't been able to get the Ada 'personality' installed and I'm
>wondering if the AdaGIDE will be better for development than EMACS
>anyway.  I'm not really excited about EMACS at this point.  **What
>editors are being used and loved out there that have Ada
>configurations?**

I use Emacs. It actually *comes* with an Ada mode installed that integrates
great with the Gnat compiler. There's a more up-to-date set of elisp files for
Ada mode available online, but the standard Emacs will work just fine if you
don't want the headache of installing new elisp files. Every project I have
worked on in the last 6 years has used Emacs as its main source code editing
tool, so it is probably worth learning to use in and of itself.

AdaGUIDE was developed for university students. I suppose it may be fine for a
beginner, but sooner or later a serious user is going to want more functionality
than it can provide.


As for books, I'd also highly suggest Norm Cohen's "Ada as a Second Language"
for an experienced software developer. My boss has over 13 different Ada books,
and that one is the favorite here.

---
T.E.D.    homepage   - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html
          home email - mailto:dennison@telepath.com